Countries can only reach their full potential when everyone can contribute. Globally, women’s labor force participation remains just over 50 percent, compared to 80 percent for men. Closing these employment disparities could raise average incomes of countries by nearly 20 percent. With 1.2 billion young people set to reach working age in the next decade, the World Bank Group (WBG) has placed job creation at the center of its mission.
The Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality (UFGE), a WBG multi-donor trust fund, supports the WBG jobs agenda by generating knowledge, evidence, and data to help governments and companies invest effectively in policies and programs that create jobs for a better future. These include creating safer and more supportive workplaces, better access to quality jobs, and supporting role models for women’s work. The newly released UFGE 2025 Annual Report highlights how investing in evidence has informed country policies and shaped WBG operations and investments. Here are five ways evidence translated into action over the past year.
- Designing solutions to unlock systems change
In Pakistan, the South Asia Gender Innovation Lab launched Job Talash, a digital job-matching platform connecting 16,000 jobseekers to 1,600 firms in Lahore. By capturing hiring decisions, it found employers were 12 percentage points less likely to select a female resume identical to a male one. These findings are informing the $78 million WBG Pakistan Digital Economy Enhancement Project and the Government of Punjab’s new job portal expected to serve 127 million people. In Bangladesh, evidence generated under the UFGE Country Flagship Program on workplace sexual harassment in agro-industries supported policy dialogue with government stakeholders, shaping a draft 2024 Sexual Harassment Bill and strengthening survivor-centered helpline services. - Using evidence to drive national policy shifts
Limited access to affordable, quality childcare makes it harder for women to enter or stay in work while driving up turnover and absenteeism for employers. This year, UFGE-supported activities advanced reforms that treat childcare as a cohesive system, aligning responsibilities, quality standards, and workplace policies that support working parents. In Indonesia, findings from The Care Economy report informed the national Care Economy Roadmap and Action Plan (2025-2045), a new female labor force participation target, and the Mother and Child Welfare Law which strengthened family-friendly leave policies. In Cambodia, UFGE-supported analysis contributed to a sub-decree clarifying institutional roles and setting minimum quality standards for childcare centers. - Applying knowledge and evidence for impact at scale
In Africa, a decade of evidence from the Africa Gender Innovation Lab, including the Pathways to Prosperity report, helped shape WBG operations that contributed to $1.7 billion in development financing aimed at reaching over 43 million adolescents, many of them girls and young women. The East Africa Girls’ Empowerment and Resilience (EAGER) Evidence Hub’s A Girl Can Dream report, which captured the aspirations of girls and young women across Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, revealed girls’ strong ambitions around education but also systemic barriers holding them back: poverty, lack of school-to-work pathways, and limited access to a range of careers. These findings are shaping the next phase of the $832 million WBG EAGER program across seven countries, including measures to keep girls in school, support safe spaces for out-of-school girls, school-to-work transition, and engage communities and policymakers to shift norms and address barriers. - Strengthening data to improve operations
Gender Factbooks produced under the Strengthening Gender Statistics Project informed WBG operations in Benin and Togo, improving policies on access to credit for women-owned micro, small, and medium enterprises, women’s land security, and agricultural support. In the Philippines, evidence from the East Asia and Pacific Gender Innovation Lab on women’s exclusion from land ownership informed mandatory joint titling reforms, resulting in women being included on 67 percent of new land titles, representing over 137,000 women. In Mauritania, macro-fiscal analysis found that addressing wage and employment constraints for women could raise GDP by 4.8 percent by 2040. The analysis informed the Mauritania WBG Country Growth and Jobs Report and a new WBG Development Policy Financing series eliminating discriminatory provisions in the Labor Code and advancing policy actions on school-to-work transition. - Partnering across sectors to multiply impact
No single intervention can address the interconnected barriers women face in the labor market but coordinated approaches across public and private sector actors can strengthen country development outcomes. In partnership with the Government of Jordan, the Mashreq Gender Facility, the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan Gender Innovation Lab, and Women, Business and the Law informed the design of the $226 million WBG Enhancing Women’s Economic Opportunities Project, the first operation in the region dedicated to women’s economic participation in the private sector. The project is expanding flexible work, strengthening the childcare sector, establishing 700 new nurseries, registering 1,000 women-owned businesses, and extending digital financial access to about 142,500 women.
Investing in evidence for stronger country development outcomes
Expanding women’s economic participation requires evidence to identify binding constraints, policies and solutions grounded in that evidence and coordinated delivery at scale. As the World Bank Group advances the Gender Strategy 2024-2030, closing the gap between what we know and what gets implemented is central to leveling the playing field for women and girls, enabling their participation in productive economies and bringing benefits for all.
Source: The World Bank Group
